1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a variable data recording machine also referred to as a credit card imprinter. Such an apparatus has keys for setting data on imprint wheels for subsequent imprinting on a transaction form. The invention includes means for preventing recordation of data without first resetting all keys (and in turn all the imprint wheels) to a datum value.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The use of credit card imprinters is in widespread use by many retailing stores and outlets such as department stores and gasoline service stations. Such widespread use has been an incentive to develop various types of credit card imprinters.
Generally, these machines employ a platen which imprints data from an embossed credit card and adjustable data wheels onto a standardized transaction form. The data wheels, which may be in one or more sets, indicate the data, amount of the transaction, and other items such as store code, authenticating code and the like. The wheels that indicate the amount of the transaction must be reset after each transaction to prevent costly or embarrassing errors in subsequent transactions.
In one particular machine in common use today, there is means for preventing imprinting another transaction form unless at least one data key is reset, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,634. When this is done, the platen may again be moved over the standardized transaction form to imprint the new data. However, it has been my experience that oftentimes resetting one key will not assure that all the data keys will be properly reset to the value of another sale (because one or more keys may be inadvertently not reset). Consequently, inaccurate data is imprinted on the transaction form.
Such an error results in an improper value which is higher or lower than what the actual purchase is for and, as mentioned, may be the source of embarrassment and loss of business if so recorded. This is obviously undesirable, especially when one considers that the source of the problem is usually inadvertence. My invention, however, eliminates this problem by preventing the platen from being recycled from its initial position again over the printing area without first resetting all the keys.